GSC Game World Announces S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2

The original S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl wowed the PC crowd back in 2007 with its unforgiving and rewarding take on the first person RPG. Whilst an expansion pack hit earlier this year, fans are desperate to get back to The Zone to work out what the hell's going on... and luckily, GSC Game World has finally announced a fully fledged sequel.

"After the official sales of the series exceeded 4 million copies worldwide, we had no doubts left to start creating a new big game in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe. This will be the next chapter of the mega-popular game players expect from us" - Sergiy Grygorovych, CEO of GSC Game World

Interestingly, the press release states that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will be powered by "completely new multi-platform technology"- which suggests that the series could well be headed to consoles.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been slated for a 2012 release. Naturally, we'll keep you updated by the wire. [GSC Game World]

Crysis 2 Scheduled for March 2011

Crytek broke our hears when they announced that we wouldn't be able to play Crysis 2 this year, but at least we now have a solid date to look forward to. According to the official Crysis 2 twitter feed, the European release date has been scheduled for March 25th 2010.

It's a long time, I know. However, expect this extra few months to be spent polishing the finished product to a state of near-perfection... and adding some jawdropping 3D for the PS3 version. Crytek are all about the 3D these days. [via 1UP]

Bethesda 2 Years Into Unannounced Project

Quakecon has provided Bethesda with a handy new soapbox from which to shout about their wares. During a panel featuring several big-name developers (including ex-Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella), Bethesda Studio Director Todd Howard stated that they were two years into developing an as-yet unnannounced project.

As you'd expect, details are thin on the ground- but the smart money is currently on Elder Scrolls 5 or the rumoured Elder Scrolls MMO. [VG247]

Bizarrely, this was the only real news to come out of the West and Zampella panel. Was anyone else expecting a Respawn announcement?